By Robert Stanton |
December 5, 2012
| Updated: December 5, 2012 2:19pm

A Humble man might have gotten away with a robbery, investigators said, if he had not inadvertently shot himself during the May 2011 hold-up, Harris County investigators said.

The suspect, Kerney Devon Benson-Flowers, 20, faces a felony aggravated robbery charge in the case, court records show. A judge set a $40,000 bail for the suspect, who remained at large Wednesday.

A motorist told investigators that he was sitting in a vehicle with his friend on Sapphire Mist Court near the North Freeway when a Dodge Ram truck parked behind them at the cul de sac, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday. Moments later, two armed men wearing ski masks approached the men and demanded their wallets, deputies said. They complied, fearing for their lives.

Then things went from bad to strange, investigators said.

"The (victim) reported that when the suspects ran back towards the Dodge Ram truck, he heard a single gunshot and one of the robbers screamed in pain," according to the criminal complaint. Deputies said that Benson-Flowers accidently shot himself while fleeing from the scene. The report did not state the extent of his injuries.

Sheriff's detectives collected a blood sample and a bullet fragment from the scene, which were sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab for analysis. The results came back in October, matching Benson-Flowers to the blood found at the scene, prosecutors said. The match was made from blood provided by the suspect during his incarceration in state prison.

"This shows that the criminals think they can get away with it (crime), but with the tools that are available now to law enforcement, it's hard for criminals to get away," said Deputy Thomas Gilliland, spokesman at the Harris County Sheriff's Office. "Anytime someone uses a weapon, it could end in a tragedy. In this case, the criminal left his DNA which allowed us to identify him."